


No More Sitting on the Side

by small_town_girl



Category: Glee
Genre: Angst, Family, Gen, Insecurities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-17
Updated: 2012-01-17
Packaged: 2017-10-29 17:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/322119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/small_town_girl/pseuds/small_town_girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Glee Angst Meme: Burt's well-aware that Finn's been avoiding spending too much time alone with him. He just can't figure out the reason why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No More Sitting on the Side

Burt sat down in his chair to watch the football game. He was home alone, with Carole at work and both boys out with friends. He could sneak some snacks from the stash he knew Finn was hiding in his room but then he’d have to deal with a guilty conscience for the rest of the night. And it would involve going into Finn’s room, which was something he and Carole tried not to do for both boys. They were teenagers and they liked their privacy. Their rule was as long as they kept their room reasonably clean and left the door open when they had company, neither parents would go in their room without permission.

He was used to watching sports alone. With Kurt having no interest other than to complain about the uniforms, Burt had quickly stopped asking his son to watch with him. Finn was more than willing to watch a game with him but ever since the wedding, it seemed his stepson was always too busy so if Burt wanted to watch a game, he did it alone. Most times he didn’t mind but sometimes it was nice to have company, someone to talk with over bad calls and amazing plays.

It was halftime when the front door opened. He knew it wasn’t Carole, she wasn’t due to be home until morning, so it had to be one of the boys. Sure enough, Finn appeared a moment later and Burt noticed how his stepson’s eyes went directly to the game on the television.

“Hey Finn,” he greeted. “Come watch the game. It’s a good one.”

“I’m kinda tired from practice this morning,” Finn was already slowly backing out of the room. “I’m just gonna go to bed. Night.”

“Goodnight Kiddo,” Burt watched the kid walk up the stairs, not bothering to mention it was only nine o’clock on a Friday night or that Finn had seemed fine earlier during their family dinner.

He’d noticed that the few times Finn had watched a game with him, Carole had been home. She wasn’t in the room but she was always close-by, in the kitchen or upstairs in their room, just a shout away. He’d never thought of it as a big deal before but now, seeing that Finn clearly wanted to watch the game, it was obvious Finn just didn’t want to watch it with him.

It hurt. Burt couldn’t lie and pretend it didn’t; his stepson didn’t want to spend time with him and it didn’t feel like the typical teenager not wanting to hang out with their parents refusal but something much more personal. When Kurt didn’t want to spend time with him, Burt always knew it wasn’t because of him but because of the activity. Finn though, well Burt knew how much Finn loved sports so for him to pass up the opportunity to watch them on the big screen had to mean Finn didn’t want to watch with him.

“Hi Dad,” Kurt was smiling as he came into the room. Burt hadn’t even heard his son get home, that was how lost in his own thoughts he’d been.

“Hi,” Burt forced a smile in return. “How was your date?”

“Really good,” Kurt replied, smile still plastered on his face. Burt had a feeling the date was more than just good. “Where’s Finn? I saw his truck in the driveway.”

“He’s upstairs,” Burt told his son, doing his best to hide his disappointment. “He’s tired from practice so he went to bed early.”

Burt noticed the look of disbelief on Kurt’s face but there was nothing either of them could do. If Finn didn’t want to watch the game with him, Burt wasn’t going to force the boy.

But he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that there was more behind Finn’s avoidance than simply not wanting to spend time with his stepfather.

*****

Kurt made his way upstairs, pausing to listen at Finn’s closed door before making his way to his own room. He could hear music coming from Finn’s room, not loud but loud enough so he knew Finn was awake, and he planned on having a talk with his brother after he changed his clothes. He wanted to know why Finn refused to watch the football game with his dad, especially if he didn’t have any other plans.

“Finn?” he asked as he knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Kurt had a brief thought that he should have brought some warm milk but he could always make some later if Finn wasn’t going to bed.

“Hey Kurt,” Finn gave him a smile. “What’s up Bro?”

“Dad said you were tired from practice this morning,” he said as he dragged Finn’s computer chair over to the bed. He could have sat on Finn’s bed with him but something told him not to crowd his brother at the moment. “He thought you were going to bed.”

“I am,” Finn looked down at his shirt and jeans like he just realized he wasn’t ready for bed. “Well almost.”

Kurt just nodded. “Too tired to watch the game?” he saw the look on Finn’s face and immediately knew, as he suspected, that Finn had lied. “You can always go back down and say you changed your mind. I’m sure Dad will love it if you watched the rest of the game with him.”

“Don’t think so,” Finn mumbled but Kurt couldn’t tell if Finn meant he didn’t want to go down or if he thought his dad wouldn’t like it. “Just ruin it again. She‘s so happy.”

He knew Finn had to be talking about Carole. He remembered her wedding speech and Finn mentioning that Carole had dated a few jerks before his dad. Just how bad had those relationships been? His dad had never dated after his mom had died but he had to remember that Finn’s dad had been gone a lot longer than his mom and Carole could have felt ready when a nice man asked her out. Then maybe that man had turned out not to be so nice when he met Finn.

That idea horrified Kurt. Even when Finn was at his most frustrating, Kurt had never thought about hitting his brother. Not once. But if someone in Finn’s past had, it would go a long way to explain his reaction around adults yelling, either at him or just yelling in general.

“Finn, you’re not going to ruin anything if you go down and watch the game with him,” Kurt watched his brother’s face carefully. He always could read Finn well and he saw the brief hope flash across Finn’s face before his brother managed to close himself off. “Did one of Carole’s exes hurt you?”

“None of them ever hit me,” Finn replied in a monotone. Kurt noticed immediately that Finn hadn’t said they’d never hurt him. His brother actually thought his father could be like those men. It did make sense though. Besides Mr Schue, Finn didn’t have a stable male influence in his life until their parents got together. How many times had Finn gotten attached to one of Carole’s boyfriends, only to have them walk away?

Kurt didn’t know what to say. There was nothing he could say to convince Finn that their family wasn’t going to break apart; that would have to come from their parents.

*****

Kurt stayed with Finn until his brother did fall asleep on him. He’d never understand how Finn could just fall asleep so easily, especially while wearing such uncomfortable clothes. There was a reason he had a different drawer of pyjamas for each season; he couldn’t sleep if he was uncomfortable. One minute he’d been talking about planning a surprise party for Artie’s upcoming birthday, and the next minute he looked up to find Finn fast asleep. His brother was still half-sitting in bed but it wasn’t the strangest position he’d found Finn in so he decided to leave him to sleep.

“Is the game over?” he asked when he saw his dad watching the news instead of the game.

“Yeah.”

“Dad,” he said as he took a seat next to his dad, “you need to talk to Finn. I think he needs some reassurance that you’re not going to turn out to be like every other guy Carole’s dated. He said something about always ruining things when she’s happy.”

From the look in his father’s eyes, he wasn’t too surprised to hear about Finn’s fear. Did he miss something that had gone on between them?

“I’ll talk to him in the morning,” his dad said, glancing toward the stairs.

*****

“Hey Finn,” Burt knocked on Finn’s open bedroom door the next afternoon. “Can I come in?”

“Okay,” Finn shrugged and sat up. He’d been lying on his bed, texting some of his friends and trying to make plans for later that night. “Am I in trouble?”

“What?” Burt frowned as he took a seat at Finn’s desk. “No, of course not. Why would you think you’re in trouble?”

Finn shrugged again, not meeting Burt’s eyes. “You never come in my room to talk. Usually you just close the door so you don’t have to see me.”

“Oh, no,” Burt shook his head, guilt gnawing at him as he thought about Finn sitting alone in his room thinking he wasn’t wanted. “Son, that’s never been about not wanting to see you or spend time with you. Your room, well, Finn, it’s a bit of a mess, and instead of getting on your back to clean it, I just close your door. It’s your room so if you like it a little messy, as long as there’s nothing growing under your bed or anything that smells, it’s fine. I guess it was different at your old house since it was only your room upstairs?”

“Yeah,” Finn nodded.

“I’m sorry Son,” Burt sighed. “Me and your mom, we meant to sit down with you boys and talk about how things will be different now that we’re a family but it seemed like something always got in the way. The rules your mom had for you were different from the rules I had for Kurt and we didn’t want anything like this to happen because of that. I didn’t mean to make you feel unwanted.”

“It’s okay,” Finn finally raised his head and looked at Burt. There was still a hesitant look in Finn’s eyes and Burt wondered how much damaged they’d done by not having that talk with the boys.

Burt moved to sit next to Finn on the bed and gave the boy’s knee a squeeze. “No, it’s not. I’m not going anywhere Finn, I’m not like those other guys your Mom dated. I’m not going to lie and say things will always be easy, we’ve already had a few hard times, but we got through it. I’m not going to walk away or ask for a divorce just because you get into trouble at school or you break curfew.”

“Okay.”

“And I’m not going to get sick of you if you watch a game with me or tell you to get lost if you need to talk to me,” Burt kept going, still seeing the hesitant look on Finn’s face. The boy wanted to believe him but he and his mom had been hurt by too many other men to make it easy. “You, your mom, and Kurt are the most important part of my life and everything else can wait.”

“What if it’s something silly and I interrupt you when you’re doing something really important?” Finn asked.

“I don’t care,” Burt stressed. “Nothing is more important than my boys.”

He saw the hope on the boy’s face at his words and he smiled. Finn was his son now, and when Carole got home from work they would sit down as a family and make sure both boys understood that they were equally important and that they could come to either of them with a problem, or if they just needed a little company. He’d screwed up but he would fix it.


End file.
